The upper echelons of the Empire included those whose influential families afforded them preferred treatment and advancement. Officers were put through one of several prestigious academies across the galaxy that raised ambitious men and women who would perfectly echo the Imperial mantra of control through authority. As the line between the Imperial political machine and Imperial war machine became more blurred, the Empire so gradually transformed into stratocracy that many in the galaxy simply took no notice.[17]

Imperial officers wore a uniform that consisted of a double-breasted tunic with matching trousers, a pair of blackboots, a belt and a command cap. There were regulations that made sure all officers maintained a neatly groomed appearance while wearing their uniforms.[21] Although officers often cut their hair short for optimal efficiency, all were permitted to keep it long on the condition that they wore it pinned back in tight braids. This allowed Nash Windrider, a male officer from Alderaan, to retain a traditional hairstyle from his homeworld.[22]

In addition to those officers who exerted command in the Navy or the Army, there were other specializations. Loyalty officers,[13] also known as Security Officers,[16] were tasked with identifying and culling any seditious individual within the Empire's own ranks.[16]

The Galactic Empire made an effort to identify recruits in its Imperial Academies who were potential officer material. Recruits identified to potentially have such talent were sometimes sent to specialized officer academies, such as the academy on Arkanis.[23]

Due to resentment towards those alien species that participated in the Separatist Movement, very few found it easy to serve as officers in the military, mostly serving as low-ranking servicemen, noncombatants, and occasionally in government positions. However, there were few exceptions. The Chiss Mitth'raw'nuruodo, better known by his Core name "Thrawn," was one of them, having attended the Royal Imperial Academy. Although initially unpopular with the Imperial Admiralty for his unconventional tactics, he ultimately became highly regarded, being promoted to Grand Admiral and given command of the Seventh Fleet. Ironically, he only accepted his commission as a means to infiltrate the Empire in order to assess its might, as his fellow leaders in the Chiss Ascendancy, where his true loyalties lay, believed that it could make a powerful ally to defend from looming threats in the Unknown Regions.[24]

With the dissolution of the Imperial Senate, Tarkin informed a group of high-ranking officers that the regional governors would assume full control over their territories.

Once the Galactic Civil War broke out, more and more officers began to see combat. This led to more and more of them being dispatched to do combat. Prior to the outbreak of the war, there were more captains, lieutenant commanders, and commanders than there were ships in the navy, meaning that the younger and more inexperienced officers, particularly those who had joined after the Proclamation of a New Order or had not served in the Clone Wars, either served in positions that they were overqualified for or were inactive altogether.[25] This changed after the destruction of the Death Star, which left a power-vacuum in the high command. This led to many younger officers being promoted. The same exact thing happened after the Emperor's death at the Battle of Endor.[22] In the time after the Battle of Endor, the Imperial turncoat Ralsius Paldora noted that 1 in every 148 Imperial officers would surrender to the New Republic and sought asylum.[26] Contrary to how it was two decades earlier, many younger, under-qualified officers as young as in their early twenties were promoted and given command of their own ships, even Star Destroyers, as was the case when Ciena Ree was promoted to commander and given captaincy of the star destroyer Inflictor shortly before the Battle of Jakku.[22] With much of the leadership destroyed either over Endor or during the rebellion on Akiva,[13] the government slowly lost much of its power. The military took control over the Empire, effectively transitioning it into a stratocracy under the command of Fleet AdmiralGallius Rax and his Shadow Council. Despite this, some greedy Imperial officers would try to seize power for themselves or take their forces and leave the Empire altogether, hoping to build factions of their own. Rax, after declaring himself Counselor to the Empire,[11] would then reunite some Imperial leaders and lead them to Jakku, where they made one final stand against the New Republic, which proved to be a devastating loss for the Empire.[6]

After the Empire's defeat on Jakku, its leadership, under Grand VizierMas Amedda, signed the Galactic Concordance with the New Republic. The conditions of the surrender placed various restraints on the weakened Empire. One of these conditions stated that those Imperial officers who did not repent for their actions were to be branded as war criminals.[6] Despite this formality, the Imperial Navy was still permitted to remain organized, so long as it relocated to the Imperial remnant established in the Core and the Inner Rim.[22]

Even so, some staunch Imperial officers refused to accept defeat, affiliating themselves with a militarized faction of the Empire that locked itself into a cold war with the New Republic. Eventually many would relocate their forces to the Unknown Regions, where they would help establish the military of the First Order.[27]